Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will deal with amendments Nos. 12 and 13. Amendment No. 12 is quite straightforward, asking that the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council would explicitly take account of the pension liability we are facing as a country. It seems that we are sitting on a pension time bomb and we know this from recent reports, including the KPMG review of the social insurance fund, which states that the State is sitting on a potential shortfall of up to €324 billion with regard to State pensions over the next 50 years or so. We know from the annual report of the Comptroller and Auditor General that the latest estimate provides that at the end of 2009, a total of €116 billion had accrued in respect of occupational pensions payable to public servants. It is the elephant in the room and there is not enough debate in the Parliament or committee about the pensions liability faced by this country. The fiscal council should specifically take that into account when completing its reports.

With regard to amendment No. 13, debt sustainability should be at the heart of what the fiscal council is about. In the report from last month it made some serious warnings that Ireland's debt sustainability is very fragile, indicating that there was a 40% chance that Ireland's debt to GDP ratio will not stabilise by 2015. I am proposing an amendment whereby the council would provide an assessment of the sustainability of the debt position of the State, taking into account the taxable base of the State and the ratio of deficit to GDP.